Tonight’s was a Peggy-centric installment that delivered a rather heavy-handed take on male chauvinism circa the 1960s. Let’s give the lack of subtlety a pass, given the era. (This was a time when people said “the Jews close everything on Saturday” without blinking and plenty of homosexuals contorted in order to look heterosexual to their corporate bosses.)

Opening with a reminder about the age of innocence, when market surveys were new, before we knew to just say no, the hour gets down to sexist business.

“She’s every bit as good as any woman in this business.” That’s the supposed compliment from Peter to Peggy, as she’s shoved aside so that Don can deliver “authority” on the Burger Chef account while she provides “emotion.” A more muted message might have felt more dramatically smooth, but there was nothing muted about office sexism in those days. It was as understated as Pete’s madras sports jacket. Which, by the way, perfectly matched his double standard for estranged wife Trudy and her dating life.

A visiting Megan admires Peggy’s new office. “Sooner or later you’re going to get Don’s,” Megan tells Peggy. Do we believe it? Does she believe it? Unclear.

Meanwhile Bob Benson has fallen into a better job offer. To work for GM, Bob’s going to need to look like a married heterosexual, another unsubtle sign of the times. He offers Joan an arrangement but she is too wise for that.

Peggy and Don hash out the pitch for Burger Chef and we get a much-missed dose of their smart chemistry along with a sociology lesson on what moms want and what advertising needs. “Does this family exist anymore?” Peggy asks of the theoretical commercial characters who eat together rather than watching TV. Peggy, the childless working mother, regards them as specimens. She hates that she’s one of those women who lies about her age but Don gives her his support. She’s got a strategy.

And we close with a hyper-realistic view of a clean, well-lighted fast-food place where every table is the family table. A spanking new version of what America is about to become. It burns our eyes.

Yes, they were different times, worse, in some cases, but not all. Most women back then were a delight, they were women, mothers, not half-men with careers, we had family dinner, our homes were clean, our clothes too, poor, but clean. Kids were polite (once again I’m speakng in largest percentages here) dressed neatly and paid attention, we had unruly kids, they were sent to the coatroom until they could behave, and all did, ATD was not a ‘medical condition’ but a failure to be responsible for yourself. Recall, no one was shooting up the school and murdering other students, we didn’t have ‘homosexuals, lesbians, and transgenders’ marching for their ‘rights’ either. Was it perfect? Certainly not, but has the pendulum now swung too far the other way, in my mind, yes.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.